How Can I Efficiently Merge PHP Objects Without Inheritance?

Efficient Merging of PHP Objects

When working with PHP5 objects that do not exhibit inheritance relationships, merging their contents can be a challenge. Traditional subclass-based solutions are inapplicable in this scenario.

Problem Statement

Consider the following objects:

$objectA->a;
$objectA->b;
$objectB->c;
$objectB->d;

The goal is to obtain a third object, $objectC, that contains all the properties of $objectA and $objectB.

$objectC->a;
$objectC->b;
$objectC->c;
$objectC->d;

Solution

The most efficient method for merging objects is to cast them to arrays using (array) and then merge them using array_merge(). The merged array can then be cast back to an object using (object):

$obj_merged = (object) array_merge((array) $obj1, (array) $obj2);

This technique works effectively even if the objects have methods, as tested in both PHP 5.3 and 5.6.

Remarks

• It is assumed that the objects contain only fields and no methods.
• The foreach method is avoided for performance reasons, as it is slower for objects with numerous fields.
• Converting objects to arrays and back may seem cumbersome but it is the most efficient solution.

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